Pac-10 review

Here’s our weekly look at the Pac-10 a day later.
First, our Pac-10 rankings1, USC — Nebraska didn’t do much yesterday to make you think it is going to beat the Trojans next week.2, Cal — Closer than expected, but a road win in a letdown situation isn’t all bad.James Montgomery, the one-time UW commit, had some big moments late for the Bears.3, UCLA — I think BYU is pretty darn good so shaky as some of the numbers look for the Bruins, a win’s a win. Ben Olson, in particular, had a lackluster day and coach Karl Dorrell compared it to last year’s game up here against the Huskies, except with a better outcome.4, Arizona State — The win over Colorado was more dominant than it looked. After giving up two quick scores, ASU outscored Colorado 33-0 in two quarters. But looks like some of the old Dennis Erickson ways followed him to Tempe as ASU had 12 penalties, which the coach called “embarassing” and “ridiculous.”5, Oregon — I moved the Ducks up a spot after that huge win at Michigan. Bad as Michigan may be, that’s still something to go in there and do that. The win has Oregon RB Jonathan Stewart so excited that he said he thins the Ducks can win the national title.6, Washington — It’s an impressive 2-0 start for the Huskies. Though Syracuse didn’t do much yesterday to make UW’s win there look any better. The Syracuse AD had some tough words for his team after the 35-0 loss to Iowa that didn’t look as if it was that close, saying “I thought we’d be a little better prepared.”7, Washington State — That’s a dangerous passing game the Cougars are unveiling once again, getting three 100-yard receivers in one game for only the second time in school history.8, Oregon State — Only good thing for the Beavers is that as this story points out, they have a lot of experience looking really bad early in the season and then rebounding to turn out all right.9, Arizona — The Wildcats opened up the playbook against NAU and columnist Greg Hansen said there were a lot of positives.
10, Stanford — The Cardinal was off but gets a chance to get a win this week hosting San Jose State.ASCENDING: Oregon. All that summer time talk about a rift brewing between Mike Bellotti and Dennis Dixon appears to have been much ado about nothing. Dixon has never looked better.DESCENDING: Oregon State. Beavers don’t appear to have a quarterback who is ready yet.PLAYERS OF THE WEEK: Tie, WSU’s Alex Brink had 469 yards passing and five touchdowns, and while San Diego State is bad, that’s impressive against anybody. Dixon’s 368 yards of total offense also deserves mention.